Lymph node metastases : The importance of the microenvironment

✍ Scribed by Alessandro D. Santin

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 60 KB
• Volume: 88
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(20000101)88:1<175::aid-cncr24>3.0.co;2-f

✦ Synopsis

BACKGROUND.

Although, to the authors' knowledge, no prospective randomized clinical trial has demonstrated improvement in survival following the radical dissection of lymph nodes in the treatment of cancer patients, lymphadenectomy is still routinely performed for curative purposes. For many years, regional lymph nodes (RLNs) in tumor-bearing hosts have been considered anatomic barriers to the systematic dissemination of tumor cells. More recently, the belief has been held that lymph nodes play a completely passive role, by virtue of the observations that many lymphatic and lymphaticovenous shunts bypass RLNs and allow both lymphatic and hematogenous dissemination of malignant cells at an early stage in the vast majority of cancers. Furthermore, surgical removal of RLNs apparently has no effect, deleterious or beneficial, on the well-being of the host.

METHODS.

A comprehensive and critical review of the scientific literature was conducted to evaluate, from a biologic point of view, the role played by RLNs during the interactions between the tumor and the host's immune system.